Missing one leg, he escaped North Korea on crutches

Missing one leg, he escaped North Korea on crutches, trekked 6,000 miles to freedom
By Mark Ellis, Special to ASSIST News News Service
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS -- June 8, 2015) -- In the 1990s, severe famine caused by government ineptitude, “biblical” floods, and the loss of Soviet support led to as many as 4.0 million deaths by starvation. One man’s hunger caused him to overcome enormous obstacles in a long trek to freedom.
“After 1994, many people from my hometown died from starvation, including my classmates,” says Ji Seong-Ho, who testified recently about his ordeal at the Oslo Freedom Forum. Ji was in middle school at that time, and began to notice more and more empty chairs in front of the desks where his schoolmates once sat.
North Koreans resorted to extreme measures to fight their hunger. “There were those who tried to prolong life by eating tree bark and grass, but they too ended up dying,” he recalls.
“The public distribution system had broken down and Kim Jong-il withheld food from the hungriest parts of my country, intentionally starving us to death,” he alleges.
A political prison known as Camp 22 was located at the outskirts of his hometown, situated near a coal mine, where prisoners mined 1200 tons of coal every day. Ji discovered it was possible to steal coal by climbing aboard a freight train that hauled coal from the camp.
“I would go out at night with my mother and younger sister, who was 12, to gather coal. We would grab on to the train as it sped by or sneak aboard as it departed the station.”
“I can still feel the weight of my coal sack,” which was almost as heavy as the young lad. At 14-years-old, Ji weighed only 45 pounds and stood just four feet, two inches tall, due to the effects of prolonged malnutrition.
One early morning in March, 1996, while it was still dark, things went horribly wrong for Ji. When he climbed aboard a moving car, he immediately noticed several other thieves aboard the train — just like himself — secretly loading sacks with coal.
“Their entire bodies were black from soot, sweat and coal dust,” he recalls. Ji was dizzy because he had not eaten in several days. Before the train entered the next station where he planned to jump off, he blacked out.
Photo caption: Ji with his classmates.
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About the writer: Mark Ellis is a senior correspondent for ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com, a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.
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